Borgward
Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Borgward (1890 - 1963) had made a hugely successful 3 wheel van in 1924 which sold well to business owners, as well as the German post office. By 1929 Borgward took over the established Hansa Lloyd company, redesigning his 3 wheeler and then going on to designing the Hansa Konsul and Hansa Borgward cars that were built into the 1940's. After the war he exhibited a car bearing his own name Borgward at the Geneva show in 1949. This was the Borgward Hansa, a 1500cc car that was modern in looks with without having seperate wings to the bodywork, which was the first German car built with American styling. Some say the American styling and shapes he had come up with were influenced by his reading American magazines while he was interned by the Americans when teh war was over! These Borgward cars were developed into larger engined cars, all of good quality while the best selling was the Borgward Isabella. Borgward died a couple of years after his company was forced into liquidation in 1961, when creditors forced payments and the banks wouldn't help him. But Borgward always insisted his company was not in difficulties, and just had some normal cash flow issues. And it would appear later that he was absolutely correct, when there was a large surplus after the winding up, even after the accountants fees and commissions had been paid. There may be quite a bit more to this story that we don't yet know about!
